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What were they thinking? Some of the Worst K-pop group names

June 20, 2013 @ 6:38 pm

by
gracelim

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﻿If you've been a die-hard follower of K-pop through the years, or if you've just hauled yourself up on the bandwagon recently, you might've noticed that some of the group names in the industry are certainly... out there.

Think about it: though names are but a collection of a few letters from the alphabet, they command your attention anywhere and in any situation. It's no question that the K-pop industry has been getting a bit crowded recently. New idol groups are emerging left and right and fighting for our attention. And albeit harsh, sometimes it gets difficult trying to keep tabs on freshly debuted groups.

But like all matters of our subconscious workings, whenever we feel overwhelmed by the smaller units, we tend to look for the overarching trends.

Rest assured, though, because we think we may have found one - group names.

The idol era that we so eagerly consume today traces its roots back to old school K-pop - a magical time when pants like these made ladies lose their senses:

But more so than the pants, we tend to associate the time with some of the group names that we can't seem to erase from our memories.

Why we can't erase the names from our memories is completely open to interpretation. Perhaps you were an overly hormonal teenager who looked up to these groups at this time, or maybe you vaguely remember their names from watching the TV when you were a toddler.

Whatever the case may be, let's look at some of the leading groups that became household names back in the day.

M.I.L.K.

Not the kind you drink with cookies. M.I.L.K. actually stands for "Made in Lovely Kin." For anyone out there who knows what that means, please enlighten me.

Baby V.O.X.

"Baby Voices of Xpression." Notice they drop the "e" in expression, ladies and gentlemen.

g.o.d.

If you thought their group name was any indication of their spiritual beliefs, you're so wrong. g.o.d. actually stands for "Groove Overdose." Why? I'm not sure.

H.O.T.

And no, their group name has nothing to do with their attraction levels or magnetic charm. H.O.T. actually stands for "High-five of Teenager." I desperately wish I can say "SIKE," but I can't.

Fin.K.L

Though Fin.K.L is actually an abbreviated form of "Fin Killing Liberty," I can't help but wonder whether the creative genius behind that name accidentally misread the "u" in Fun for an "i." Not that "Fun Killing Liberty" would've made any more sense than "Fin Killing Liberty" regardless.

Young Turks Club

I kid you not. This mixed group actually called themselves the Young Turks Club. After a little research I found out that the Young Turks were a secularist Turkish nationalist reform party in the early 20th century. How that relates to K-pop, I have no idea.

Back then, it could have very well been possible that the producers behind the names didn't have an extensive knowledge of English to know which choice words to string together for their groups.

Here are some of the more recent names you might be more familiar with:

TRAX

Typhoon of the Rose Attack on X-Mas. They claim that the name is based on the member's stage names, but omg - it truly is an unfortunate name.

C-REAL

It's cute that they made a relatively harmless group name using the first initials of all the members' names. But honestly, this is all I see:

MBLAQ

This could go both ways: Either the producers loved the way the initials "MBLAQ" looked together, so they desperately conjured up "Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality" to correspond to the letters. Or, the producers thought they were so clever coming up with "Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality" that they decided to use the first initials of their English concoction.

CHI CHI

"Creative electronic House Idols." Coming from a group that doesn't really scream electronic genre, their name is quite bold.

YMGA

"Young Men Gangsta's Assocation." You know you're truly living the thug lyfe when you spell gangster "gangsta."

H.A.M.

I mean...

Here are the ladies of "Heart and Mind."

TOUCH

"The Original Undeniable Charismatic Homme."

... the what?

BTS

This recently debuted boy group is known as "Bulletproof Boy Scouts" or "Bangtan Boys." Quick food for thought, though - why would boy scouts need to be bulletproof? What type of survival techniques are scoutmasters teaching kids these days? Anyways, of the two names, you decide which is better. Not to mention two of their members call themselves Rap Monster and SUGA. Sounds like they'll be serving up a serious dose of awesomeness in the near future with names that fierce.

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I didn't mind TRAX initially until i saw the meaning; Typhoon of the Rose Attack on Xmas?? I mean this is so dumb even compared to the acronym. And I'm wondering why f(x) isn't on this list. I mean, am I supposed to be learning calculus or what? And I have to admit though SHINee is my best kpop band but theri name is really childish. Also SS501, they are my second best but i just don't know what to think of their name. Super Junior is also really dumb. What happened to the s behind junior(s)? They are like 10 now right? Plural guys! And don't even get me started on U-KISS. I wonder why it's not on this list. It's the weirdest and dumbest name ever. The only acronym name that kinda makes sense is TVXQ because the meaning is cool.

TRAX's "Typhoon of the Rose Attack on X-mas" is still my favorite name because unlike Shinee and Suju and U-kiss and SS501, all of whom I love, their name actually relates to them. Typhoon, Rose, Attack, and Xmas, all the members, granted those may be terrible names but at least they tried to have fun with it, and the name is actually meaningful besides names like "Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality" (No offense to Mblaq, love them too).